Clone City

The Home Affairs Committee was the most the influential of the several committees that governed Joypolis. As Chairman, Darvin sat at the head of the oval table around which the Directors of various government departments were seated. Everyone was present, except O, Director of Belief.

The main points of the meeting had already been covered and Gorvik, the Director of Cloning and Socialization, was explaining why he believed the Seventh article of the Clone Acts needed to be reformed. He was arguing for an amendment to allow for free cloning. He was in no mood to let the subject drop, despite sensing that Darvin was eager to bring the meeting to an end.

‘The Seventh has outworn its usefulness and it’s time we took a fresh look at this issue,’ Gorvik repeated in a desperate bid to get his counterparts to move toward his position. ‘We need intelligent clones, not an army of Low Personal Responders,’ he said, looking into each face in the hope of detecting a sign of support. Finding none, he added darkly, ‘It’s time to change before change is forced upon us.’

‘That sounds rather ominous,’ rejoined Arron, Director of Administration. ‘What do you mean “before change is forced upon us”? We have an affluent, stable society thanks to the wisdom and foresight of the Founders.’ Arron knew this appeal to the semi-divine status of the Founders would elicit immediate support from the conservative members of the committee. Three of them duly nodded their heads.

‘They knew more than any of us,’ Arron continued, ‘that the presence of LPRs would help the survivors. Having an underclass provides an important, psychological comfort. Don’t you see, it helped the survivors to get through those difficult times, helped them overcome the terrifying sense of loneliness and isolation?’

‘I’m not questioning the wisdom of the Founders,’ Gorvik interrupted. ‘I’m in as much awe of their vision as you. But that was two centuries ago. At that time, they were compelled to address the problem of how to secure the survival of a small number on a planet devastated by the impact of asteroids. There’s no doubt that the introduction of a clone workforce created a brighter environment that pushed the birth rate problem to one side. And, I agree, it helped citizens come to terms with the harrowing fact that only Joypolis seems to have survived the catastrophe. But now, we have to address a different problem – stagnation. The presence of so many LPRs is having a detrimental effect on our citizens, especially the Manager Class. They show no initiative. They’ve become lazy and if we need to do something about it before it gets worse. What we need are creative scientific minds – of the very sort that made the Founders the kind of people they were. They never forbade change.’

‘There’s another aspect to this problem,’ said Sovran, Director of Media. ‘Recently, you may have heard that a child of seven died while being rushed to hospital. All of us know, and none more so than that poor child’s mother, that we have the reproductive technology that could have re-created that child. The mother begged the paramedics to take samples of live tissue. They refused. In the end, she took some of her child’s hair before he died…’

‘Are you suggesting,’ intervened the Chairman grimacing, ‘that the Seventh be amended for resurrection cloning?’

‘Yes. And if you’d interviewed that child’s mother you would, too.’

‘We can’t make constitutional changes for a handful of people. For Code’s sake, the person you’re referring to could have another child naturally,’ Darvin rasped.

‘Please, please…’ Gorvik said, raising a hand. ‘I sympathize with my colleague and agree with her – resurrection cloning should be available in such tragic circumstances. But the real issue here is the subtle, cumulative effect of the undermining of the drive and motivation of our Manager Class.’ Once more, Gorvik searched the faces around the table in the hope of finding support. ’It’s the same insidious effect that servants have upon their masters. They un-man them. Look how the birth rate continues to fall. I believe there is a connection. Because we produce a clone labour force, it affects citizen reproduction. It has a knock-on effect of blunting the need for children. They don’t feel they ‘gain’ from having children. In Darwinian terms, the ‘cost’ outweighs any advantage in terms of ‘fitness’. It’s another example of social inertia. This is the issue we need to address and its solution,’ he hammered the table, ‘is free cloning for intelligence.’

‘There may be something in what Gorvik says about a decline in standards,’ said Q’zar, Director of Security, his lean, bird-of-prey features turning to address the rest. ‘I, too, sense a general malaise of sorts, especially among the young. But I don’t know if you can blame it all on LPRs. I think a lot of responsibility lies with the tittle-tattle that Media bombards the citizens with day in and day out.’

Sovran shot a look of disdain at Q’zar. He was always carping on about the content of the news and other programmes. If he had his way, there would be twenty-four hours of propaganda every day of the year.

‘But I would caution my colleague and any others who would dare tamper with the Seventh,’ continued Q’zar, ‘not to forget the Annals. The Story of–’

Before Q’zar could finish, Lara, Director of Education, jumped in to complete his sentence, ‘Ore. How Ore married Freya and how, because neither were fertile, they decided to clone a daughter from Freya. And of how happy Ore was to see in Hera, their daughter, the image of his wife Freya.’ Lara continued despite Gorvik raising a hand to intervene.

‘If I’ve heard this once, I’ve heard it a thousand times…’ Gorvik remonstrated, shaking his head.

‘But as Freya grew older and Hera more beautiful, Ore began to lust after his own daughter until…’ Lara went on, raising her voice in the face of Gorvik’s protests.

‘We know, we know – incest, genetic regression. For Code’s sake, can’t we get back to the point?’ he pleaded.

‘What I’m trying to say,’ Lara shouted, ‘is that’s why the Seventh stipulates with golden clarity that a generation gap must be maintained. If donors knew who the clones were cloned from, we’d run the risk of incest and then, may the Founding Fathers protect us, we wouldn’t know how to distinguish true human from artificial!’

‘Has it never occurred to you,’ Gorvik replied, ‘that environment plays a big part in all of this? Hera would not have been like Freya. She would have grown up in a different society, had different experiences and been as different as you and Sovran,’ he added, pointedly.

Before Gorvik could continue, Lara jumped up and shouted, ‘The point of the myth isn’t just about anonymity. It’s about safeguarding what is truly human!’ The last word was screamed into Gorvik’s face.

Thinking he had better step in before the argument got any worse, Arron said, ‘Ours is a small world and,’ turning to face Gorvik, he added, ‘I understand your enthusiasm for change and I applaud it. But this is different. I can’t and won’t mention the unspeakable, but everyone will understand when I say Joypolis is…an island.’ Arron looked at each director in turn. It was as close as he could get to a subject that had become taboo – the Outside. Everyone inclined their heads, except Gorvik and Sovran.

It was Gorvik’s view that fear of the Outside was part of the same problem – a dread that change could destabilise everything they had achieved. Knowing it was not a view he could gain any political advantage from, he remained silent though he was seething inwardly.

‘I really must ask all of you to allow this meeting to move forward,’ pronounced the Chairman, stepping into the fray. ’We seem, as usual, as far as this subject is concerned, to have reached an impasse. My view, after having taken careful note of what has been said, is that we need to have tangible evidence that our citizens are being weakened by the presence of so many clones as well as the claim that the fall in the birth rate is in some way connected to the same issue.

‘I’m inclined to agree with the majority that the problem is not so pressing that we need to reform our sacred constitution. Even the seemingly innocuous amendment that Sovran has tried to persuade us of on humanitarian grounds would in my view open the floodgates. The inch that yields the yard, as the old proverb has it. Free cloning would, as the Founders saw, obscure traditional family relations and lead into a genetic quagmire.’

‘What!’ Gorvik burst out, unable to contain himself any longer. ‘What are we, if not social engineers? Are we to become mere guardians of the past!’

‘Order!’ shouted Darvin. He did not like Gorvik’s outburst one bit. They were becoming all too frequent. ‘The matter is closed. Are we able to conclude this meeting or is there any other business?’ he asked, drumming his fingers and looking only toward those he knew he could count upon for support. As no one spoke, he raised his head a fraction and was about to conclude the meeting when, crestfallen, someone spoke.

‘Chairman, are you aware that a C80 has been submitted by a Packer?’ asked Q’zar.

‘Eh, no, I was not,’ he replied, pulling the computer screen that he was on the point of closing up again. ‘Does anyone know anything about this?’ he asked in flat tones.

‘Well, now, yes, yes, I believe I do,’ replied Valchek who was Director of Personnel and effectively in charge of the entire clone workforce. ‘Let’s see, um, his files show he’s the first and last of a batch of Ordinary Carer Clones, number C174, received into the Hub Warehouse exactly thirteen years, two months ago. What this means is that unlike other Packers who have benefited from the most up-to-date techniques of bio-semiotic conditioning, he, that is C174–’

‘Yes, yes, we know all that,’ Darvin snapped, ‘but more to the point, why has he filed a C80?’

‘I dare say he’s entered the first stages of breakdown. He complains here,’ Valchek said, pointing at a screen image of Ord’s C80, ‘of a change in his routine. It’s the usual symptoms – fussing about some trivial matter. He’s the last of that model and, frankly, I’m surprised he’s lasted this long. Our modern models have all the refinements and advantages of modern coding…’

‘So what do we do with him?’ broke in the Chairman, flexing his fingers in front of his bushy eyebrows.

Thinking that he might be able to get the last word in on the issue of free cloning, Gorvik spoke up.

‘This may not be entirely relevant, but I think it’s worth mentioning that this Carer became a Packer, something that was not intended. I remember there were others and they’ve already deconstructed. This kind of situation doesn’t arise very often, but some of you may recall that we had a similar situation a few weeks ago, discussed at a different meeting. Thirty-odd female Carers were transferred to the Aesthetics School to work as Sex Servicers.’

Arron nodded while Valchek looked on uneasily as Gorvik continued: ‘We really ought to avoid this kind of situation. We condition them for one task and then, because of some bureaucratic mix-up, they’re assigned to an entirely different one! That’s why they deconstruct earlier than they should. It’s not profitable.’

‘It’s not easy to predict exact ratios of supply and demand for all the different work categories,’ Arron replied. ‘We do our best but, well, there are occasions when we get it wrong. Statistically speaking, it’s a very small number.’

‘Does this matter?’ Darvin asked, puzzled at their concern.

‘Well,’ replied Gorvik, ‘this situation certainly wouldn’t exist if free cloning were introduced.’

‘That subject is closed,’ Darvin snapped, turning red in the face.

Valchek was the first to break the awkward silence that followed. ‘As a rule,’ he said, ‘we let them deconstruct so that their peers can witness their anti-social behaviour before they’re taken to the Encrypt.’

Q’zar, whose hooded eyes had not left Valchek for an instant, said, ‘Doesn’t he complain of a new arrangement of the boxes, a new system being introduced?’

‘Yes,’ said Valchek, scrolling down Ord’s file. ‘He does say something of that sort, but the crux of the matter is the change in his routine coupled with his age and, above all, that he belongs to our…’

‘…earlier more primitive clones,’ the Chairman chimed in. ‘Now, we really must bring this meeting to a close. Time is pressing. Q’zar, are you satisfied this clone poses no threat to security and can be left to decline like the rest of his batch?’

‘Yes,’ replied Q’zar, concealing his contempt for the true reason behind the Chairman’s haste to bring the meeting to an end. He couldn’t wait to see his beloved Zuriko Azari.

‘If that’s the case,’ the Chairman said, without looking around the table, ‘this meeting is concluded.’ He then rose from his chair and began gathering papers and putting them into a folder as quickly as he could, ignoring Valchek who was still muttering.

‘Of course, he does complain of a sign…’ Valchek mumbled, before looking up and noticing everyone was getting ready to leave.